Pub­li­ca­tions

17 Dec 2025

One Devel­op­ment, Two Tow­ers and Two Occu­pa­tion Cer­tifi­cates (one Inter­im and one Final). When Does the Home Build­ing Act Statu­to­ry War­ran­ty Peri­od Commence?

The NSW Supreme Court has clar­i­fied when statu­to­ry war­ran­ty peri­ods start for staged devel­op­ments under the Home Build­ing Act 1989 (NSW). In The Own­ers – Stra­ta Plan No 93543 v Zhang (No 3) [2025] NSWSC 571, the Court exam­ined com­ple­tion dates for sep­a­rate build­ings, impact­ing lim­i­ta­tion peri­ods for defect claims.Most pro­ceed­ings brought…

4 Nov 2025

Restraints and Real Estate – what is enforceable

What do post-employ­ment restraints in real estate real­ly mean for agents and employ­ers? In the prop­er­ty indus­try, employ­ment agree­ments often include three key restraints: non-solic­i­ta­tion, non-accep­tance, and non-com­pe­ti­tion. These claus­es aim to pro­tect client rela­tion­ships, con­fi­den­tial infor­ma­tion, and busi­ness good­will, but their enforce­abil­i­ty depends on how they’re draft­ed and applied…

4 Nov 2025

Reform­ing Retail Leas­es? Retail Leas­es Amend­ment (Review) Bill 2025 (NSW)

What does the Retail Leas­es Amend­ment (Review) Bill 2025 mean for land­lords and ten­ants in NSW?On 14 Octo­ber 2025, the Min­is­ter for Small Busi­ness intro­duced the Retail Leas­es Amend­ment (Review) Bill 2025 (Bill) to NSW Par­lia­ment to imple­ment the first tranche of leg­isla­tive reforms to the Retail Leas­es Act 1994 (Act)…

2 Sept 2025

NSW Fair Trad­ing com­pli­ance | What to do if you receive a complaint

You receive a let­ter from NSW Fair Trad­ing (OFT) in your inbox refer­ring to a ​‘com­plaint’ being lodged against you/​your agency and requir­ing infor­ma­tion to be pro­vid­ed with­in a few days. It’s daunt­ing to receive one of these let­ters, espe­cial­ly if it’s your first. You’ll be won­der­ing who com­plained, what did you do…

19 May 2025

Beware Retail Lease Dis­close Statements

Before a retail lease is entered into, the Retail Leas­es Act 1994 (NSW) (the RL Act) requires a land­lord to give a signed Lessor’s Dis­clo­sure State­ment (Dis­clo­sure State­ment) to the ten­ant. The Dis­clo­sure State­ment con­tains impor­tant infor­ma­tion about the premis­es and the com­mer­cial terms of the lease — such as the per­mit­ted use, the…

9 Apr 2025

Res­i­den­tial Ten­an­cies Act 2010 (NSW) reforms and oblig­a­tions of land­lords — effec­tive from 19 May 2025

Intro­duc­tionThe Res­i­den­tial Ten­an­cies Act 2010 (NSW) (the Act) and the Res­i­den­tial Ten­an­cies Reg­u­la­tion 2019 (NSW) (the Reg­u­la­tions) have under­gone some sig­nif­i­cant changes fol­low­ing a pro­longed and exten­sive con­sul­ta­tion peri­od with prop­er­ty man­age­ment stake­hold­ers. These changes have gen­er­at­ed a lot of buzz as they seek to improve the rights of ten­ants in NSW and…

3 Mar 2025

When is a loan real­ly an Option Fee? And when is an Option a Contract?

It cer­tain­ly is not news to those of us who deal in the prop­er­ty devel­op­ment space that Rev­enue NSW now impos­es trans­fer duty (or for those of us who have come from the old school – stamp duty) on the grant of an option to pur­chase. These laws also impose…

11 July 2023

Alert | Con­struc­tion indus­try update: When is reme­di­al build­ing work exempt devel­op­ment? 11 July 2023

The Depart­ment of Plan­ning and Envi­ron­ment has pub­lished a ​‘Reme­di­al Build­ing Work – State Envi­ron­men­tal Plan­ning Pol­i­cy (Exempt and Com­ply­ing Devel­op­ment Codes) 2008’ Fact Sheet (Fact Sheet) to pro­vide guid­ance as to when reme­di­al build­ing work is con­sid­ered exempt devel­op­ment under the Exempt and Com­ply­ing Devel­op­ment (Codes SEPP): https://​www​.plan​ning​.nsw​.gov​.au/​s​i​t​e​s​/​d​e​f​a​u​l​t​/​f​i​l​e​s​/2023 –…

3 July 2023

Is your Com­ply­ing Devel­op­ment Cer­tifi­cate valid?

In the recent deci­sion of Wol­londil­ly Shire Coun­cil v Kennedy [2023] NSWLEC 53 the Land and Envi­ron­ment Court has held that the fail­ure by a cer­ti­fi­er or con­sent author­i­ty to include the ​‘pur­pose’ of devel­op­ment in a Com­ply­ing Devel­op­ment Cer­tifi­cate could ren­der that cer­tifi­cate invalid.  Impli­ca­tions A com­ply­ing devel­op­ment cer­tifi­cate can only be issued…

13 Mar 2023

NSW Con­struc­tion Update

Roberts v Good­win Street Devel­op­ments Pty Ltd [2023] NSW­CA 5 In a recent deci­sion hand­ed down by the NSW Court of Appeal it has been con­firmed that the duty of care pro­vi­sions intro­duced under Part 4 of the Design and Build­ing Prac­ti­tion­ers Act 2020 (NSW) (DBP Act) on 10 June 2020, in par­tic­u­lar a claim…